EPA 40 CFR Part 441: Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Pretreatment Standards for the Industrial Laundries Point Source Category

On December 17, 1997, EPA published proposed pretreatment standards for the control of wastewater pollutants from the industrial laundries industry. After careful consideration of all of the information in the record for this rulemaking, EPA has decided not to promulgate national categorical pretreatment standards for the industrial laundries point source category because industrial laundry discharges to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) do not present a national problem warranting national regulation.

EPA is not issuing effluent limitations guidelines and new source performance standards for direct dischargers since there are no direct dischargers and no means to evaluate performance to determine the appropriate level of control for national rulemaking purposes.

For this action, EPA considered many regulatory technology options as well as the no regulation option. EPA has determined that indirect discharges from industrial laundries do not warrant national regulation because of the small amount of pollutants removed by pretreatment options determined to be economically achievable.

For existing sources, EPA estimates that a rule for this industry would remove less than 650 pounds of pollutant per facility per year (which, on a toxic weighted basis, is only 32 pound equivalents).

For new sources, EPA estimates that a rule for this industry would remove less than 1,040 pounds of pollutant per facility per year (which, on a toxic-weighted basis, is only 51 pound equivalents).

These pollutant reductions represent much smaller removals than any other categorical pretreatment standards promulgated by EPA.

EPA's record does not demonstrate that Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) are generally experiencing problems with discharges from this industry, and EPA believes that such discharges will rarely, if ever, present a problem. To the extent that isolated problem discharges occur, existing pretreatment authority is available to control these isolated discharges.

EPA believes that for this industry, the best way to control effluent discharges of certain organic pollutants is to remove the pollutants that are contained on the laundry items before they are washed. EPA's Office of Solid Waste (OSW) plans to address the amount of certain waste solvents being sent to laundries in a future rulemaking (the first quarter of the year 2000) with an aim toward decreasing the amount of solvent-based organics on towels.

Edited by Tracy Fabre